Non-Surgical Prodecdures OA

Getting in another day of learning with the Stanford Health Care O’Connor Hospital Residency and Fellowship program.

Today our focus was a journal club on non-surgical procedures for patient’s with knee osteoarthritis (OA). Steroid injections were common practice for the last 20 years and there is a shift to using hyaluronic acid (HA) or platelet-rich plasma (PRP).

Steroid injections- Can help short-term knee OA symptoms, but can accelerate degeneration of the joint. Can be used in advanced OA for symptom relief.

PRP- Platelets derived from person’s own blood and can decrease inflammation

HA- Synthetically made and with similar results to PRP for short-term knee OA relief

Summary: Both PRP and HA procedures do seem to have similar short-term effects to alleviate symptoms for patients with early stages of knee osteoarthritis (OA). PRP is fairly expensive and not covered by many insurances, but research shows it is becoming the increasing choice for short-term relief of symptoms in early stages of OA.